Legalizing Medical Marijuana

TUESDAYS WITH ROSEMARY AND MYRA Virtually everyone is familiar with Mitch Albom’s book, Tuesdays With Morrie. Myra Christopher (Foley Chair at the Center and former Center CEO) and Rosemary Flanigan (Retired Center Program Staff) have decided to regularly contribute to the Center for Practical Bioethics’ blog and call it “Tuesdays with Rosemary and Myra” (even though it won’t necessarily be published on a Tuesday). Read more about Rosemary and Myra at the bottom of this post.

M: Rosemary, I’m sorry, but I did not get my homework done. So, you are going to have to tell me about the National Geographic article that we agreed to read. Good ethics start with good facts; so, give me the facts, Mam.

R: Okay, basically the article says that marijuana has been found to be helpful in cases of childhood epilepsy and other seizure disorders, and its use in relieving or ameliorating these tremors or whatever the child goes through has led many people to project its use for other medical purposes.

As you know, across the nation, states are legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes. However, I believe that the argument for it has got to include further research about its use and side effects. My argument is that we need the research for the justification of its use for purposes other than those for which we have evidence that it works.

M: That’s a good argument, but we actually have very little evidence for most of what is done in medicine, and let’s talk about the fact that some states are also legalizing the use of marijuana for “recreational purposes”; so, what’s the distinction?

The views, opinions and positions expressed by these authors and blogs are theirs and do not necessarily represent that of the Bioethics Research Library and Kennedy Institute of Ethics or Georgetown University.